welcome to maker camp today you're gonna
go face to blue face with the makers of
an amazing spectacle that's right Sam
drumming in lights Twinkies and robots
we're going backstage with Blue Man
Group at the Monte Carlo Resort in Las
Vegas Nevada we're gonna see the secrets
hidden in the wings plus the weekend
project the raspberry pirate radio so
stick with us you won't want to miss
this thank you for joining us on the
final day of DIY Music Week I'm camp
director Paloma
I'm camp director Burke and I'm camp
director Sam and you're about to go on a
tour of music stage craft and excitement
but before we take you on the tour we're
gonna check in with our counselors
Pierre and Enrique counselors are you
guys ready for this exclusive tour
absolutely absolutely I really like how
they incorporate science and technology
into the shows to really give the crowd
a more interactive experience yes and I
think what's interesting too is that we
talk a lot about people who makes music
people who makes instrument but you are
doing both music and instruments that's
awesome yeah it is awesome I'm so
excited for this so campers drum roll
please we're taking you to Blue Man
Group
hello campers and welcome to the Monte
Carlo resort and casino in sunny Las
Vegas one of the strangest and most fun
places on earth making it a perfect home
for the Blue Man Group cue the zoom
coming up to the casino now into the
casino through the casino hang a left
and there it is the Blue Man Theatre
where thousands of mines are exploded
every day hello I'm Ben I can see myself
you guys can hear me we're good
hi hi hi we've got a lot to show you
I've had a lot of coffee we're backstage
right now but first things first what is
a blue man show what is the show about
it's about awakening
everybody's inner child and their sense
of play and their sense of wonder about
the world around us there are Twinkies
and there's a dance party and it's
actually so hard to explain that I won't
even try anymore I'll just let you see
for yourself
see it's a pretty good time now
everything you just saw happens right
here on stage follow me
you guys are mobile we're gonna take
advantage of that thank you Mike
Thank You Alberto we're gonna abused our
cameraman today um so if you can Pan the
camera out here this is what the
audience sees or no this is what the
performers see rather and as you can see
surrounding me now
tons of stuff and these two giant
eyeballs are baby and Mama let's go over
here so baby and Mama float around the
audience at the top of the show making
sure everyone is paying attention and I
want to introduce you to someone very
special this is Bill Schwartz hello
everyone bill bill is the quintessential
maker so everything well a lot of the
things you see today are the brain
children of this the brain father and
and speaking of Bill did you design
these too I drew that one and a guy
named Michael Curry drew mama and he's
got a great shop up in Portland Oregon
and brought a lot a big team of people
with lots of different skills you know
they could paint really well they can
sew really well they can weld really
well with all sorts of stuff and it was
a opportunity for us on this show to
sort of expand our toolkit it's all
really simple things but it makes a
difference when you're putting on a show
that everything kind of when it comes
out it's different
yes ting so we knew when we made these
we wanted them to be kind of a family
but be different so mama is a
traditional remote-controlled servo
motor like a blimp
just your standard blimp and baby is
really much more simple she's wrapped up
in a blanket it looks kind of like a
tail and it just swishes back and forth
and as she does that she news for the
kinetically funny cool audience it's a
nature brown eye just to clarify this
shop in Oregon you guys can do
everything you can fabricate paint
invent everything yeah awesome and so he
put them up yes many of lion king you've
probably seen a bunch of stuff in the
Olympics and the Olympics things yeah
and you were always making stuff as a
kid right yes always taking things apart
unable to put them back together yeah
and as a kid a lot of it is about what
you find everyday objects and the same
is true for this company we use a lot of
found objects a lot of everyday objects
such as PVC piping which is the next
thing we're going to show you here this
is a giant PVC organ and you can buy PVC
anywhere at the Home Depot underneath
your bathroom sink and I just want to
make sure that people know how simple
this instrument is that everything is
it's a steel frame yeah all this stuff
steel frame PVC pipe cut to different
lengths yeah and plywood that's it it's
like I would on some foam rubber yeah so
these are foam panels the blue men use
these these pipes they produce different
notes so you were saying that everyone
that's watching this has seen these but
they're all over me not in our show you
see him if you've been to any Maker
Faire or any like I would guess all
little science things or 4-h who knows
yeah people putting these together it's
a great beginner project super
SuperDuper easy to do and you can really
make music it's just just an enormous
one though this is a really big one and
it's three instruments three instruments
put together one blue man stands here
one should stand ther one stands there
and they're laid out all in different
ways so that the blue men have to play
some different stuff so it's not like
they're just noodling in the box with a
guitar there they're forced into unusual
decisions and yeah and you know they
take up different ranges of the
instrument to that guys playing all the
mid-range this guy's holding down the
bass and he's playing all the high stuff
all the high stuff that's cool
and there are strips of LEDs here to
highlight the bloom in and inside and
the inside as well
and speaking of tubes and LEDs so what
we're gonna show you next
this is Oh bill just lost his mic pack
Oh
so this is an acoustic instrument
and this is the backpack which is not an
acoustic instrument
it's powered by MIDI triggers I'm gonna
crawl in here yes that looks like a
marching band instrument but taken like
to a whole nother level it is like a
marching band instrument it actually
it's a backpack so the blue men wear it
I'm just gonna hit these triggers here
can you hear that sounds great yeah so
so these you want to explain these MIDI
triggers a little bit yeah this is
simple standard $0.30
piezo things just like triggers that you
can use to wires on them rip one out
little voltage on it I guess that's
really simple things go just put a back
down a piece of plastic with some foam
on it that all costed I don't know six
dollars maybe in total and then that
goes into a standard drum brain the kind
of thing that you'd use on any
electronic drum kit
there's DMX coming from the lighting
desk that powers all the lights here so
it's a protocol that they already know
how to use that they can say okay these
foam noodles we want them to be blue
right now and then there's a
microcontroller in there mark Koch
another guy is going to talk about those
a little later in the brain in the brain
yeah that it waits around for a MIDI
note and when it gets one it makes it
change so that you can see which note
got hit that's a chase effect yeah
little chase effect so just
and it's really light these are just
yellow noodles that you can buy for 250
yeah like that's PVC pipe steel
cardboard this is pool noodles that bill
carved with a turkey knife I think
that's where your exact words yeah and
it that makes it really lightweight and
so when you're when you're designing
something like this do you sketch first
do you use clay computer imaging
software or what do you call three alert
modeling wire is a good way to do it you
know it's like this wire it's kind of
like a coat hanger and when you bend it
it stays there so and you can just get
it in a coil at like any crafts job okay
so if you want to make a form like this
but you can't it's hard to kind of draw
in 3d that way I want to see it for real
so just bend it around and with a pair
of pliers until it gets to be a shape
you like and then take some measurements
or whatever cool yeah you can make this
stuff that's the point we're trying to
make here with me let's show you this
this crazy thing over here I'm gonna
crawl out of here and I'm gonna crawl
into this so this is the drum Phoenix
and how this works is you can see the
arms move the blue man strap this on
around the waist they tug it around
there are four drums here two drums here
two trees which are log drums and this
metal frisbee which is a chopper cymbal
as I'm told by our music experts and and
these arms move so ability you wanna was
that your idea yeah I think Michael
showed me this mechanism that I really
like which better geekamouse
yeah it's it's pivots that are offset
from each other on this truss work so
that very very little linear movement
back there makes a huge radial movement
out here and so we thought that's really
cool we can just put things back there
and and make giant gestures onstage you
know with the six arms and yeah and this
animal-like thing and then once we
thought to put the drums on the end we
knew it was going to be fun yeah for the
Blue Men to chase them the women
actually have to chase these drums and
it makes for like the PBC's very
interesting musical choices yeah that
sometimes they don't even make they are
made for them
so what exactly is this made out of this
aluminum steel no this is all steel and
the sculptural nature of it is something
that they're really good at at the shop
it's really fun too this is not
something I think that we could have
entirely drawn first it kind of has to
be done on site you know you go that
that looks kind of good let's make that
a little higher bend this little yeah I
was gonna ask you to do it as you go
like do you start with the exact idea
for this or do you start building
something and then just sort of build on
it depends I like to make something and
then make it again and make it again a
make it your just redo it until it's
until it's got lights like antlers on it
or whatever this does have it does have
antlers oh yeah this goes like this lit
antlers oh yeah it's very simple
Phil is just turning a wheel right now
it's it's all bicycle gears and chains
and and once again and that's just you I
would buy the blue man walking around if
you can get the camera you want to you
want to look at the brains of this thing
it's pretty crazy and those are just
standard things it's just LED controls
and fuses and relays to turn things on
and off and the motor control over there
it's it's it looks complicated but it's
not it's just a lot of it so believe it
or not it gets bigger than this we're
gonna show you this something pretty
crazy this is called the man blur it's
powered by elves so what this is it's
basically a giant walking instrument so
there are drums here there's a drum
platform over there and that is our
favorite thing that's a whack Amole
someone that's really more of a whack
opossum let's up music the whack Amole
is actually a musical element of this
entire instrument yeah when the blue man
hit a mole it makes a musical note and
so that's like our keyboard sort of that
they play with a big meat mallet at the
end of the show yeah and so you guys
might be wondering how this
is driven it it basically has two levers
then you drive it like this commercial
yeah I like farming equipment yeah there
are these two simple but huge motors
under there that each just are dumb and
just want to go forward like this but
then you can buy a motor control that
has several outputs on it so you can
just turn to pots and send it to the
motor control and set up and tell it
which one is right and which one is left
and it's really easy to then control
some really dumb motor with it yeah but
make it feel pretty good so we've got
one at speed and one that's left and
right so I stayed intuitive for the blue
men oh and then there are there are
there are many systems on this thing you
know compressed air to make the moles go
because those are pneumatics there's
smoke machines and fans inside there to
inflate the smoke-filled womb and think
yeah this is pneumatics here and the
yeah like these get out of the way of
the birth this whole yes the birth this
has a birth canal this whole thing
inflates it pushes these drums this way
and it basically pushes the bloom in off
they jump off and receive the human that
is inside which is an audience member so
basically this thing fills with smoke
it's a smoke-filled womb yeah as we she
gets pregnant like really fast really
yeah it's a pregnancy and then and then
the human comes out and speaking of
smoke we've got another very interesting
instrument to show you these are the
aptly named smoke drums and let me come
I'll come around with you here bill will
go up there
so these things fire perfect smoke rings
do you want to explain the guts of one
of these bad boys yeah so outside we
like the shape of the timpani so we
tried to make it look like a kettle drum
you know and this is somewhat
translucent fiberglass sprayed with this
copper stuff that they're LED lights
inside a
can you know that's just a cylinder a
straight cylinder that when you make the
snow grains they also light up and
change color
this looks copper now but then it
changes to any RGB color and inside here
there's a linear actuator kind of like
the moles it's just a valve with a hose
going in each side and blow in air here
it goes back you blow in air here it
goes forward and it's connected to a
giant plunger
so smoke machines under here send smoke
through here in a coil when the plunger
goes back it creates a vacuum and sucks
all the smoke like a coiling like this
and then it shoots off real fast and
makes a toroid and toroidal idea it's
like a date word yeah and we found
making these was really really fun
because we found all sorts of cool
things you could do with that if you
just put smoke in front of here yeah and
just shoot air out just plain old air
that air will pick up all the smoke and
make a smoke ring on the other side oh
wow that's interesting I wouldn't have
thought of that but it happened they
were like oh that's cool let's do that
that's pretty women so whose idea was
this yeah sometimes there was a way my
job goes sometimes I get to think up
things and do it and sometimes I don't
there's a the founder of Blue Man Group
is this guy named Chris wink he's one of
the founders and sometimes he comes to
work with crazy ideas and one day he saw
on Good Morning America or something
like that some dude with a coffee can
rubber band that was shooting smoke
rings anything and he's like bill why
don't we have a bunch of those big ones
when we snuck away and we're now in this
cage like structure we're above the
stage and I'm here with two of the
crazies I mean musicians here at Blue
Man Group
so this is Jeff this is Andy can you
guys tell me where exactly we are and
what you guys play yeah we're in the
stage left fan loft and play drum kit
here and Andy plays the Chapman stick
and the electric zither which I'll tell
you about in a bit
actually built his own and across the
way is the stage right ban laughs
there's a guitar and to stand up for
question rigs and we hear each other
through somewhat modern technology of in
ear monitors oh yeah and those are those
are basically glorified headphones this
what they're custom molded they keep
they keep the sound out but they also
get a very specific feed in and and
video monitor and then we have a
metronome over here for here and you're
gonna click to some of the temples and
watching the stage and the audience
visually to see what's going on then
Andy show us the sitter we have some of
our string instruments up here there's a
few ways instruments find their way into
the show or ways that we use them one of
those ways is where we build something
from the ground up like a lot of the
instruments you saw down there another
example of that is this thing the
electric zither it's plywood and 2 by 3
and piano pin block and guitar string
and bass string 8 electric guitar
pickups it actually has 87 strings on it
so it's quite a beast there's a few ways
we play it a few different kind of
sounds we get out of it get out of it
one of those things one of those sounds
is sort of like a lap steel you might
hear in rock or country music it sounds
like this then it's also kind of part
heart so up here we have what we call
the heart
and then another way we use it is kind
of in an electronic or techno sound and
we get it through a couple of guitar
pedals we have down there we could
create a sound like this so that's the Z
there another way we use instruments in
the shows we take something that already
exists out there in the world and we use
it in a slightly different way this is
the chapman stick which is out there is
made by somebody else but we use it a
little differently it's intended to be
tapped which is an example of that is
like this so we do do that in the show a
little bit but the primary thing I would
say we use it primarily we use it is
something called the mandelbrot which is
where we take a bass string and bow it
on the other bass strings on the stick
so it sounds like this and that's sort
of a melodic and a really make
foundation of the show and we lock in
with the kit and that mandelbrot pattern
which Jeff will show you here oh boy
yes so speaking of the kit this is the
drums are our DW custom maple mahogany
we had a 14 which you saw me play on
that mandelbrot pattern which is kind of
unconventional 10 12 16 22 in a six and
a half aluminum one millimeter thick
snare drum a variety of Sabian cymbals
as you can see and the kid player is
like the bandleader of the show so you
have to pay attention to him so anything
goes weird it's his fault you yell at
him later and we kind of yeah we punish
him later I should mention really quick
that I mean the blue men don't speak not
everyone knows that we kind of assume
that people know that but the blue men
do not speak and so it's our musicians
who actually are responsible for scoring
the dialogue that might be happening
between the blue men and the actions and
things that go wrong on stage so you
guys are you guys are playing score of
music but you're also improvising right
yes yeah they're moments where it's like
okay this is the specific piece it's
four minutes long it's how it goes then
other time with the blue men are out in
the audience and it's like depending on
what's going on you have to you have to
pay attention to follow and there's
certain cues you give so everyone's on
board and watching their their action on
stage and whatever means we have to yeah
play the show yeah and you guys are like
basically rock stars so we keep
them up here away from people but we do
release them into the public every night
to play something that we call the
procession let's take a look
so the procession musical parade that
goes through the casino our theatres in
it kicks off the show nightly and it's
kind of a reminder for people playing
the slots that's something a little more
exciting then a thirty dollar jackpot is
happening just down the way we are we
are running backstage to our next locale
and we're live again
so we're way backstage now I'm here with
two of the procession experts this is
Mark a brainiac and this is todd a
musician here todd is
in a contraption it's like a musical
insect Todd you want to tell us
something like the musical aspects of
this thing yeah this is one of our three
percussive peds used for procession
before the show and it's divided up in
between small medium and large drums
this is the rayless with small drugs and
we have lots of stuff on it we have
Hawaiian log drums we have single headed
Tom's double headed Tom's snare drum
hi-hat two bells Sabian choppers and so
we use this you know for about 15
minutes before the show and we're we're
all single file
and so we're spread apart pretty far so
we have a hard time hearing each other
that way so what keeps it all together
is we actually have in ear monitors and
we're plugged into wireless packs and
these packs play us a metronome that
gives us the correct tempo so we all
listen to that at the same time that
keeps us all along together that's
awesome yeah and you mentioned before
that some of these drums have bottoms
and some do not right that's right
is there a technical reason for that
it's just a different finality like the
drums that that only have the head on
top produces a very short sound and the
drums that have the heads on top and
bottom produces a longer time and it's
just for a variety of cool the
procession is very musical but it's also
very visual as well it's like an entire
lightsaber battle that we've turned into
a parade I'm gonna take us to mark now
mark is sort of the technical expert on
some of these elements you want to turn
some of this about it yeah the these
percussive aids yeah they have blue
noodles with some 5050 LED strip in them
they create this nice neon glow effect
we use that in a lot of things in the
show we have a little brain board back
here that controls some of the elements
of this for instance when the musician
strikes the drum these legs will cycle
colors
so we have a microphone on a board that
has the same chip that's used in Arduino
microcontroller board yeah those are the
brains right yeah that's the brain and
that picks up that sound and it cycles
through these LED colors okay we also
have the hair up here which is we call
quills and they're using a different
type of strip but they're cycling
they're able to change their colors it's
not through using one microcontroller as
well so let's let's keep going yeah this
contraption is called a trial what is
this thing because it yeah crazy yeah
this is the trike it's it's got a golf
cart chassis in it it drives around it
tows these two other trailers behind it
a string cart and our techno Moni over
there
the cart is the car itself is covered in
a bunch of these red LED signs the same
kind of thing you'd find at the stock
market yeah and so it creates this
slipstream of information flowing over
our car and it's got its little quills
up there as well that change color as
they shift and there's there's a device
called an accelerometer in there okay
and as it shifts from left to right it
changes its color if you could you want
to close in on it on these gears they're
pretty cool yeah that's one motor
running this whole gear assembly in this
kind of sine wave configuration and this
used to be powered by some unlucky human
right used to be pedaled and then yeah
we converted that to a golf cart so oh
yeah now it tows these other two devices
behind us here so it it toes first of
all it tows this thing called the string
cart and there's another Zinner on this
bad boy
as you see yeah there's another zipper
here a Chapman Stick so this is like a
mobile version of what you see in the
show and then and what it tows over here
is this thing called the tech tech
nominee it's like a sea anemone with
more pool noodles and more 50 50 LEDs
and it just changes their color hues and
rocks back and forth and yeah it's a
nice effect so yeah these things things
are just pulled through the casino like
a big train
yeah a parade float and then what's this
giant hamster wheel over here that's
that's a hamster wheel for humans that's
not really what so this is called a zorb
and yeah it acts like a hamster wheel so
there's a person inside of it walking it
through the casino and then we have
another another person guiding it and
then striking it and then it lights up
where every time they hit the drum yeah
so so yeah that's our procession here at
the Monte Carlo Thank You Todd and Marc
thank you um we're gonna move now to
robots because we do have a lot of
robots in the show and we auditioned
several robots in and we found that a
lot of them were emotionally flat not
surprisingly but we do have two robots
in the show that learned to play a song
with the blue men let's let's roll that
footage we have footage of these guys as
you can see there there are two giant
koko robots their actual assembly line
robots and they make some mistakes and
the blue men have to kind of teach them
what they're doing but but unlike the
end of terminator it does become a
beautiful man and machine musical
collaboration yeah they they basically
play a mini-cooper I'm here with Chris
Chris is keeper and controller of the
robots first of all do you feel like you
play a glorified video oh yeah all the
times are you sure and second of all
these cookies are just one part of an
enormous automation system that powers
this show can you tell us about this
system yeah sure our primary system we
use for the show consists of 26 axes
ten of those axes are wire rope drum
winches five of those are attached to a
counterweight system to fly various
elements of the show in and out five
more are used in conjunction with a
track and trolley system to motivate our
LED screens each of those winches is
capable of moving 500 pounds at four
feet a second which is pretty quick we
also have 13 one-ton chain hoist that
are equipped with load monitoring and
position feedback and then finally we
have three axes that our wagons two of
those are friction driven and one of
those tracks along a chain the cuckoo
wagon here the chain is anchored into
the stage floor
so let's talk about this wagon yeah you
can see right there this whole thing we
like to call this the marsupial we give
it a little bit just so let's talk about
these two robots in particular these are
actual assembly line they are actually
assembly line robots you know and we
take them in and use them in a different
way yes yet each of these machines is a
six axis machine they weigh in at 1500
pounds of piece they have an eight-foot
reach to them they can carry as much as
66 pounds out at the end of the arm and
they're repeatable positioning down to
two thousandths of an inch so these
things don't really have to well they do
have to warm up before they're still
right that says they do they do when
yeah when we come in and we power up for
the day the robots are maybe not sure
where they're at so we have to run
through a little program just to
validate that the robots are actually
where in the world they think they
should be so we run through a master and
break program and that takes it through
and just validates the positioning of
the robot so it actually knows right
where it's supposed to be and then after
that we run through a little break check
and that break check just allows us to
make sure the breaks are opening and
closing when they're commanded to do so
and then once we've got all that
accomplished and we load up the program
and it sits there in weight mode until
show time so we initiate a move yeah and
as you saw in the footage there the
cucas get really really close to the
blue man which makes safety a big
concern right safety is huge far and
away to pull off this sequence you know
safety is of the utmost concern and it's
the most safety attention part of the
show and we've implemented a lot of
measures to make sure it stays safe so
first of which along with all the other
eyes that are on stage we have a person
that keeps their thumb on a button it's
called the Deadman and they're
monitoring the situation at all times
just to verify you know if anything goes
wrong they let off and that will stop
both systems completely thank you dead
man
yeah and also on the banned lofts we
have mounted safe edge switches along
the post so if the robots ever lost
their mind tried to run into that piece
of scenery those pressure switches would
also shut down both systems so you've
got that level going on we
also have put RFID sensors on this wagon
and the PVC wagon that you saw earlier
and those have to align two sensors that
are mounted into the stage floor and
that's the way that we know that the two
pieces are correctly relative to one
another in the real world for the
choreography of the Blue Men and the
robots and along with that on the PVC
wagon there are also four mats that are
pressure sensitive mats and it is the
way that the system knows whether a
particular space is occupied or not
occupied in order to continue with the
sequence and run at any time there's
also another level of zones built in
with the robots that allow them to
either work or not work inside of those
zones so all of that together is what we
do to keep machine and man safe and free
from harm and just a quick question we
these things weigh so much in this
platform wastes so much that we had to
reinforce the stage right it did have to
reinforce the stage this thing yeah it's
a pest it is a beast yeah there's a lot
of counterweight out here if that eight
foot reach when they get to swinging
around they certainly caused the whole
wagon shakes shakes violently so it's
yeah it's it's pretty amazing but it's
it's very neat example of technology
coming together to make it work yeah so
you can see how many systems are in
place and how many people it takes to
prevent accidents and I always say that
the real show is behind the scenes here
at blue man something that the audience
might not think about are the props that
we use just as you can't you can't go to
Guitar Center and buy a neuron ulam
backpack you can't go to Walmart and buy
the props that we use we actually have
to manufacture this stuff in-house and I
don't have to do that but Joe and Brian
do this is Joe this is Brian so you guys
want to tell us about props yeah
thanks Ben yeah props up blue men are of
a pretty unique breed we follow sets
design aesthetic standard and given the
fact that we do two shows a night on
average these things have to be pretty
durable I mean they take it they take a
beating sometimes literally we have
precautionary props with the props that
gets us spit out some good eatin oh we
have props that get paint on them so we
have to keep in mind just all the
operations that happen all the time
the blue men are unpredictable strange
creatures and they destroy things for a
living and so the profs take a beating
here you guys want to tell them yeah you
guys fix it fix the one Tom's about your
team here yeah we're a team of nine
people
we're actually specialized makers and
there's actually four people each night
running the show but uh there's so much
more to than that we're also fabricating
we're maintaining props we're doing all
that we're inventory things yeah so uh
it's it's a huge huge operation what
kind of materials do you guys go through
we could use a lot of really cool stuff
we're getting out of silicones and
plastics and we're using a lot of
fabrics and foams and things like that
but we've also got some pretty mad
skills in the prop shop yes we're doing
we're doing all sorts of soldering we're
doing things like that we're doing
special effects and puppetry and all
sorts it's really a mad science lab we
just saw that that you were building a
drum Bo yeah this is it's actually a
really good example of a Blue Man
technology this is actually recreated
repurposing she's using everyday objects
in a very unconventional way this is
actually a really good example of three
three bloomin working death--it together
to create one one moment yeah and this
takes the whole this takes everyone who
works the theater basically to make this
instrument yeah I mean Blue Man is a
very inner we work collaboratively all
the time I mean to make the drum bone we
work all departments put their hands in
this you know for example props we build
this we put the finish on this audio
mixes the sound and mics it on the
musical instrument Tech's a tune it my
team lights it so you can see it
carpentry and automation you know safety
standards and wardrobe clothes the
performers and of course the performers
they play this yes it actually takes
everyone to create the experience and
actually bring this to life these guys
pop in every once in a while in this
place so we should follow them because
they're the trombone is an instrument
and if just if they figure out how to
play it right now then we're in for a
treat
I'm gonna I'm gonna get out of the way
yes no I'm in the dark surprise before
the blue now they're going away to steal
something else from somewhere in the
base so so that's it for our tour
actually it was a whirlwind tour I just
want to make sure you guys know that
that all this stuff is really simple you
can make it make your own drum bone make
your own PVC organ this all started when
three guys got together and made
something so make instruments make music
make joy and spread it and even though
the blue men are talking I'm sure
they're saying the same thing so that
does it for our tour we're gonna go now
to the QA we have all of our guys here
ready for your questions so we'll just
we'll just pay attention here so let's
go over to the counselors who have some
questions from you campers yes so on a
lot of the campers want to know what was
the inspiration for the show what is the
inspiration for this stuff that's a good
question um I think it came from from
these guys wanting to make a show that
that they hadn't seen before that
included a lot of the things that they
were good at such as drumming and and
painting and just making this explosive
experience that they thought was kind of
missing in the world at that time I
think that was the inspiration but I
think it's also just grown leaps and
bounds upon just so
this whole time so they started with the
concept and then just built and built
and built but it's just its sheer
imagination really yeah it it comes
across as this really fun and playful
great experience I mean I've gotten to
experience so much just even here today
but even in my research before it's just
it's this fun collaborative experience
that's about getting people to get out
of their shells and play and and and
really interact so I love it and you
know I think my favorite thing about
today is is also that you can see that
the Blue Man Group really is all filled
completely with makers from from the
actual show all the way behind the
scenes to the people working you know
you start with piezo from like contact
Mike's like we were talking about those
actually all throughout maker camp as a
great way to get started all the way
through to using production line robots
I love that they it completely covers
the entire range of making yeah really
simple and there's a lot of parts that
you can find anywhere I mean it's
amazing I can only imagine how many
stores sell out of pool noodles and
counselors I want to get another
question because I could talk all day
about this but let's hear what you what
you have to say yes we have a good
question from Ellie who was no how did
show challenge from exhaustion wait how
did it change from when it first started
oh how did it change from when it first
started
yeah well there there have been
technological advancements since when it
started which was a while ago
and so I think it's like what you hear
about Star Wars like once the technology
was available George Lucas said ok I can
make the movies that I want to make now
the same can be true for for some parts
of the show is that I think once
technology became available they were
like let's go crazy and let's make
stranger and crazier stuff and that's
why we have robots now and you know it's
but the show I mean the show changes all
the time as well they implement like
little changes here and there are
changes to the music new musical pieces
new
new like comedy bits and stuff like that
but it's changed it's changed a lot it's
constantly changing and it's also it's
also the fact that the way the show is
is set up is that it's not like a
conveyor belt play that's that's on a
conveyor about this whole time and
nothing can change it's it's open-ended
and so we can insert new pieces in all
the time wherever we want wow that's
that's really incredible which makes it
cool yeah that's so cool I have a
question for the props department I was
wondering what tool do you consider like
the most essential that has gotten you
out of so many you know type jams in the
past several years turkey turkey and
Bill says turkey knife holds the world
together has a dark side and a light
side just like the force from Star Wars
so that's that's the whole joke I've
always heard Star Wars what's going on
here black spray paint always helps in a
quick fix as far as tools I mean
probably the internet that's how we're
actually researching and developing all
sorts of new no technology materials and
ER a lot that's like the girls tools for
making you know like carving uh pool
noodles so pool noodle carving yep yeah
but they go through turkey and I was
like crazy this yeah we're gonna we're
harping on this turkey knife business
materials that they must have every
every month we go through go through a
lot of stuff that's terrific how does it
that you tuned PVC anyway because I
don't think people have ever given that
any thought whatsoever before you came
on oh it's just like any organ or any
there's lots of instruments based on the
organ that are just pipe lengths right
so it's a mathematical formula that has
to do with the length of the pipe
whether it's open-ended or not and then
the temperature of the air and it's
really simple so the higher the air
temperature the higher the pitch
but then also the longer the tube and
you can do the math really easy so that
was all modeled first each of those
pipes we already knew what lengths they
were going to be because we knew what
temperature the theater would be at the
time and and what notes we were going
for so we didn't even have to tune it
just got the Bill of Materials off with
a CAD drawing yeah I mean I'd love to
see some of our campers at home go to
the hardware store pick up some PVC or
even find some paper towel rolls and see
what you can come up but see if you can
make your own your own fun environment
and actually I have a I have a question
that I want to ask for myself because
this is awesome
so musicians what techniques you do use
everyday like what techniques in the
show do you use everyday wait what what
do we use everyday
musicians well we all been playing for
decades so we like this stuff we just
learned through the years playing and
whether it's some of us were trains and
we're playing rock bands or whatever and
and in the willing to play with multiple
people at once you have to listening a
lot to playing together a lot of
listening and not just thing about
yourself thing about the whole thing as
a whole with the band in blue man yeah
as far as maybe even technique goes
there's you know for example like on the
electric zither there's a piece in the
show where we actually take a tape
measure and just pound on the strings
you know so there's a lot of
unconventional technique type stuff to
it literally just find an object and try
it out and let's see what it does on
this you know machine and then see what
sort of sounds we can get out of it so
it's always you know inspiration kind of
comes from all sorts of places who has
the best tape measure technique thing
going on everyone's got their own tape
measure way up holding it it's it's kind
of like the claw you know just very
primal you want to say there's no jump
on the tape measure
you know I think that it's really
awesome that the big you know first
thing that you mentioned they're like
listening not even just for musicians
but in any sort of collaboration really
feeding off of the other people and any
performance it's really important to
kind of listen to the other people in
the room and and feed off of what
they're doing and respond to that in a
way so that you can be really fluid with
your performance oh yeah and it's also
it's also like we're where the show is
different every night because we're
feeding off the audience every night
like it's uh every audience you would
not believe how different the energy is
between audiences and so you know we're
picking that up from them the Blue Men
are picking that up and then the band's
it's picking that up as well and so the
show is all it's all listening basically
it's much less out than in but that's
interesting what you say about a
collaboration because you can see we're
a pretty big team yeah there's just
people all over the place and it takes
so many people to make this show I don't
work here in Vegas I work in New York so
I come periodically to see it and every
time I come back so many things have
changed you know backstage or like
little bits of the show and it's really
fun to see so you realize everybody's
constantly contributing and there's
always a willingness for everybody to
just accept ideas from any corner makes
it really fun there's no way really to
come up with all of this from one place
you know yeah it it's always better I
think to collaborate it's it it
surprises everyone involved then you
know it's the thing in the end turns out
to be different than anybody would have
planned yeah that's definitely a career
take-home message on that is that one of
the great things about collaboration is
that by by submitting yourself into the
group you are bringing your talents and
your abilities into this pool that mixes
together and the results surprises
absolutely everyone totally yeah
counselors do you got one more question
out there yeah so this is actually the
question I think that everybody's been
wondering on jalisa and Jenny asked so
how can they get involved in the show
and on top of that what special train
do crew members or performers need to to
have well for performers that's the only
arena that I can speak of
it's the audition there's a drumming
audition and an acting audition and it
helps to have that experience but again
there's there are no skills that are
required the only skill that is required
is that you're kind of open to your
inner child and your sense of play it's
like I said earlier and if you're open
to that kind of energy it's it's super
helpful and listening is also super key
but as far as I mean as far as these
types of backgrounds I don't being a
community on our was a big one
communicator a community a community
member o community member when I went
for my interview a long long long time
ago roomful of people and we talked for
hours and I spent the whole day there
and it was really really intense and it
really didn't have to do with so much
with skillset as much as how you can
work with everybody and understand where
everybody else is coming from and and
contribute yeah I'm musician wise too
you have to be proficient at your
instrument of course too but all that
other stuff these guys have is totally
just as important as far as like yeah I
would say get involved with high school
the great thing you'll get in the drama
department the community theaters if you
have any in your area you know get
involved with those and just start
learning how it's done you'll make
connections it's entertainment world's
really pretty small so you'll you'll
meet somebody that'll know somebody and
you'll find your way for sure Network
yeah make stuff yeah make a whole bunch
of stuff and then you can say I've made
this and this and this and this and then
you've got a resume all of a sudden so
part of it yeah yeah absolutely very
true you know the campus that we have
they're just some of the most amazing
makers that I think that I've ever met
there they're so impressive and so
willing to get involved and collaborate
so so campers if you want to get
involved work on that making skills go
to the go to the hardware store make
your own drum bone and make your own fun
things and play with them and then post
videos of them on the community page
so I can enjoy them yeah pretty much
hardware store is the new toy store now
yeah let's let's be honest the hardware
store has always been my facebook and
you know what thank you thank you
everyone for just being so amazing today
this has been such an eye-opening
experience for especially for me just
being able to see what goes behind the
scenes and how many people it takes and
I have such I mean I already had a crazy
huge appreciation for now but now I know
why I have such a huge appreciation for
this show because it's just it's so
beautiful and and fun and playful and so
thank you so much for sharing that with
us and with the campers watching today
yeah thank you for having us awesome
it's been awesome and Sam what do we
have coming up later coming up later we
have instructions on building the
weekend project powered by Radio Shack
the raspberry pirate radio it's an
awesome
oh they're touching me how do you get
anything unpredictable it seems like
they're absolutely unpredictable and
speaking of unpredictable they don't eat
anything
they're just here they live in the
shadows in this theater and they just
they feed off of the crowd energy yeah
oh yeah no Twinkies they do yeah we
shoveled Twinkies into this into this
small room that we have in the corner on
the next day we we could get Twinkies
yeah
thank you so much coming up coming up
Monday we're gonna kick off make-believe
week and we're gonna see the model
makers at Aardman animation and oh man
I'm really excited about it's gonna be
great I'm so excited and and please stay
tuned for the res berry pirate radio
video this is a really really fun
weekend projects video you may find see
some faces that you recognize in it and
campers if you were inspired by anything
you saw by our fantastic guests today
remember do try this at home
good bye campers goodbye bye hi I'm Sam
Freeman with make have you ever thought
about becoming a pirate no not that yar
made a type of player but the Builder of
a pirate radio station in today's
weekend project we're gonna turn a
Raspberry Pi into a powerful FM
transmitter with enough range to cover
your home
DIY drive-in movie high school football
stadium or bumpin pirate bike parade the
pirate radio is based on PI FM by oliver
meadow some oscar waggle which was
revised by ron dressings makes
engineering intern winter woods
contributor to the project put the
pirate radio python script which enables
playback without using the command line
and will handle just about any music
file format automatically this is a
great example of the collaborative power
of the open source community okay let's
get started you leave the following
parts which can be picked up at your
local radio shack and his basic tools
you only need an hour or so to complete
this build and it's a great first
present for learning about the Raspberry
Pi one last thing before we start the
pirate radio is capable of transmitting
between 1 and 250 megahertz
it's which may interfere with government
bans please stay within the FM band and
always choose a frequency that's uh not
in use to avoid interference with
licensed broadcasters please check your
local laws before transmitting
well start by building the antenna all
you need for a basic antenna is the
length wire we use the length of 12
gauge solid wire and it works just fine
start by cutting off the end of a female
jumper wire next solder it to one end of
your antenna wire and insulate the
connection with heat shrink tubing you
can add a bit of hot glue around the
joint for additional support all that's
left to do is plug it into pin 4 of your
Asbury pie now it's time to upload the
software to the SD card you can download
the make labs disk image from the
project page our image has been
optimized enables more playback options
and it takes the work out of
partitioning the cards into system and
data partitions keep in mind you can't
just drag the files to your SD card it
must be flat for it if you're not
familiar with this process don't worry
it's easy just head over to the project
page for a link to a tutorial the last
step is to add your music to the SD card
simply add your artist or album folders
to the root of the pirate radio
partition on the SD card your music
files can be nested within these folders
so there's no need to dump all your
files into one mess on the read
directory and which makes improvements
to the code you can now use almost any
music format you've got mp3 FLAC WAV m4a
AAC or WMA and the code will handle them
automatically once your SD card is ready
you can set the broadcast frequency in
the pirate radio config file open up the
file on a text editor and you should see
something like this keep in mind that FM
frequency is typically range from 87.5
megahertz to 108 megahertz you should
pick the frequency that isn't being used
in your area for best results you can
also configure a few other settings like
shuffle and repeat when you're done
configuring the settings save the file
and get ready to start broadcasting now
all that's left to do is plug in your
raspberry pi tune your FM radio to your
frequency and enjoyed the broadcast
keep in mind that it will take about 15
seconds to warm up once it does you
should hear your music loud and clear
the pirate radio is a clever hack of the
clock signals that are generated through
the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi if
you'd like to learn more about how it
works
I don't over to the project page for all
the technical details it's a great place
to share projects ask questions and most
importantly learn how to make your PI
radio portable